Looking to power up your Linux computing on the go or for around the house? System76 have refreshed the Darter Pro with a brand new build powered by the latest tech.
Just like a lot of their recent hardware, it's coming filled with some great open source software too. System76 hooked up their new Darter Pro with their Open Firmware. This gives you coreboot and the EDK bootloader with System76 Firmware Apps. So say hello to fast boot times, better security and easy firmware updates from within the operating system.
"The Darter Pro has long been a customer favorite," says Sam Mondlick, VP of Sales. "We’re excited to reintroduce our users to this extremely versatile laptop with features that make it noticeably better than its already fantastic predecessor."
System76 claim it's a highly versatile machine for working on the go, with up to 9 hours battery life. Reasonably light too for moving around at 3.84 lbs / 1.74 kg. If you choose the option with Pop!_OS, the Linux distribution made by System76 then you also get all their built-in enhancements like the fun Auto-Tiling.
Here's some of the fancy tech specs for you:
| Operating System |
Pop!_OS 20.10 (64-bit), Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS (64-bit), or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (64-bit) |
| Processor |
11th Gen Intel® Core i5-1135G7: Up to 4.2 GHz - 8MB Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads 11th Gen Intel® Core i7-1165G7: Up to 4.7 GHz - 12MB Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads |
| Display |
15.6″ 1920×1080 FHD, Matte Finish |
| Graphics |
Intel® Iris Xe Graphics |
| Memory |
Up to 64GB dual-channel DDR4 @ 3200MHz |
| Storage |
2 x M.2 SSD (1x PCIe gen4 + 1x PCIe gen3 or SATA). Up to 4TB total. |
| Expansion |
1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C / Thunderbolt™ 4, 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 × USB 2.0 Type-A, MicroSD Card Reader |
| Input |
Multitouch Touchpad, Backlit Chiclet US QWERTY Keyboard |
| Networking |
Gigabit Ethernet, Intel® Dual Band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 |
| Video Ports |
HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C w/ DisplayPort 1.2 |
| Audio |
Stereo Speakers, 1× Headphone/Microphone Combo |
| Camera |
1.0M 720p HD Webcam |
| Security |
Kensington® Lock |
| Battery |
Li-Ion - 73 Wh |
| Charger |
65 Watts, AC-in 100~240V, 50~60Hz, DC-out 19V, 3.42A, USB Type-C Charging Compatible |
Pricing starts at $1,099 and you can find the Darter Pro here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Firmware
It is related to device tree (DT) thing on ARM systems powered by Linux.
Well, poor choice of words in the news here as "Open Firmware" is slightly different thing..."Open" and "Firmware" are ordinary English words with meanings; I'm not sure I'm willing to accept the idea of the combination being locked up to only refer to that particular term of art. I think it would be very difficult to trademark the term "Open Firmware", for instance, even in our fairly ridiculous legal environment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Firmware
It is related to device tree (DT) thing on ARM systems powered by Linux.
So like, if they have firmware and it's open, I think it's reasonable for them to call it open firmware.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 22 January 2021 at 6:16 am UTC
They are using Coreboot as a wrapper for Intel's binary blob. The blob is what ultimately controls the system, and it still enables the Intel Management Engine.
Source for this? The very same repo linked in the article. It uses Intel's FSP binaries as a dependency.
https://github.com/intel/FSP/tree/c80123384aa74ee0a0b011ad4e8a0afc533c8195
What is the benefit of this? You get your own custom and fine grained firmware control for all the laptop internal capabilities, from fanspeed to power states, ram settings and cpu clocks. Yet we are still running proprietary code on a CPU controlled by the management engine, which has network, storage, cpu and ram access.
Can the IME be mitigated by this firmware? Yes, it can be halted by doing some editing, yet we are still running the proprietary code, and "trusting" that we actually stoped the IME.
I'd prefer if this articles talked about this, Purism does this as well, there are very few real Open Source Firmware projects out there.
Arehandoro Jan 22, 2021
While I do like the work System76 does, It's wrong to call this laptop's firmware open source. It is not.
They are using Coreboot as a wrapper for Intel's binary blob. The blob is what ultimately controls the system, and it still enables the Intel Management Engine.
Source for this? The very same repo linked in the article. It uses Intel's FSP binaries as a dependency.
https://github.com/intel/FSP/tree/c80123384aa74ee0a0b011ad4e8a0afc533c8195
What is the benefit of this? You get your own custom and fine grained firmware control for all the laptop internal capabilities, from fanspeed to power states, ram settings and cpu clocks. Yet we are still running proprietary code on a CPU controlled by the management engine, which has network, storage, cpu and ram access.
Can the IME be mitigated by this firmware? Yes, it can be halted by doing some editing, yet we are still running the proprietary code, and "trusting" that we actually stoped the IME.
I'd prefer if this articles talked about this, Purism does this as well, there are very few real Open Source Firmware projects out there.
I wasn't aware of this, thanks for sharing the info!
Well, poor choice of words in the news here as "Open Firmware" is slightly different thing..."Open" and "Firmware" are ordinary English words with meanings; I'm not sure I'm willing to accept the idea of the combination being locked up to only refer to that particular term of art. I think it would be very difficult to trademark the term "Open Firmware", for instance, even in our fairly ridiculous legal environment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Firmware
It is related to device tree (DT) thing on ARM systems powered by Linux.
So like, if they have firmware and it's open, I think it's reasonable for them to call it open firmware.
"Open Firmware" is a proper name, "open firmware" is not. Looking at the github repo they seem to call it "System76 Open Firmware" so the error was in fact in the article not with System76.
TheLinuxPleb Jan 23, 2021
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